ByGrace3 Posted July 20, 2020 Share Posted July 20, 2020 My ds is going to take Dave Raymond's US History along with his sister. She is taking American Literature with Schole and I don't feel inclined to have him read what she is reading . . . I have a list I planned for him to cover but honestly, as I sit surrounded by books and have been planning for days . . . I am tired. Is there some amazing middle school american lit curriculum that has lesson plans ready to go? If not, share with me the don't miss books. Why does even scheduling books to read and discuss seem tedious at the moment? I have never experienced burn out at the beginning of the year before . . .not a good start. Yikes. In all fairness, it is more of a planning burn out-- I am actually looking forward to jumping in to the new school year soon! (I think I am having lesson plan envy) My current short list: Island of the Blue Dolphins, Witch of Blackbird Pond, Across Five Aprils, Freedom Train, Hero Over Here, Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry, A Treasure of Poetry for Young People, The Call of the Wild, Kidnapped, the Yearling Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 (edited) I can't think of a pre-made program that is specifically American Lit. for middle school.Sonlight core 100 (grades 7-9) is American History, using Hakim's Story of US as the nonfiction spine + lots of historical fiction. If you would prefer a pre-made complete Literature program (to reduce your stress), BUT-- is NOT tied to American History:- Christian Light Education grade 7 Reading- Mosdos Press: Jade (grade 7)- Lightning Lit. 7, a full, mostly-solo-working program, which has several American works in: 2 poetry units = 6-8 poems in each unit (as I recall, most of the poets are British, not American) 2 short stories = Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (Kipling = British); Bride Comes to Yellow Sky (Crane = American) 4 novels = The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Twain = American); The Story of My Life (Helen Keller = American); Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll = British); All Creatures Great and Small (Herriot = British) If wanting individual books... What exactly is your goal for the American Lit? - good books that happen to be set in the U.S. for solo reading? - historical fiction to go along with your history? - literature that happens to be set in the US, that has depth for beginning analysis and learning about literary devices and literature topics? - U.S. literature that follows a theme or a "thread" to follow from book to book to see variations on the theme? If just wanting historical fiction to flesh out the Dave Raymond program below are some ideas. (I only listed up through turn of the century, since the Dave Raymond program only goes up to Teddy Roosevelt's presidency, which is the 1st decade of 20th century.) lessons 1-2 = up through 1600 (explorers) - First Voyage to America: From the Log of the Santa Maria -- nonfiction - The King's Fifth (O'Dell) - Walk the World's Rim (Baker) lessons 3-8 = 1600-1775 (colonies) - Pocahontas (Bruchac) - The Light in the Forest (Richter) - Amos Fortune, Freeman (Yates) lessons 9-13 = 1775-1789 (Revolutionary War/Constitution) - The Arrow Over the Door (Bruchac) - Seeds of America trilogy: Chains; Forge; Ashes (Anderson) - Guns for General Washington (Reit) - My Name is America series: The Journal of William Thomas Emerson: A Revolutionary War Patriot, Boston, Massachusetts, 1774 (Denenberg) lessons 14-19 = 1790-1840 (early U.S., War of 1812, expansion) - The Journeyman (Yates) - Fever 1793 (Anderson) - Carry On Mr. Bowditch (Latham) - Lyddie (Paterson) lessons 20-23 = 1840-1865 (pre-war, Civil War) - The Slave Dancer (Fox) -- Glencoe Lit. Library Guide - Elijah of Buxton (Curtis) - To Be a Slave (Lester) -- nonfiction - The Boys War (Murphy) -- nonfiction - Bull Run (Fleischman) -- Civil War - Slopes of War (Perez) -- or -- Rifles for Watie (Keith) -- or -- The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg (Philbrick) -- Civil War - My Name is America series: The Journal of James Edmond Pease: A Civil War Union Soldier, Virginia, 1863 (Murphy) lessons 24-26 = 1865-1910 (Reconstruction, the West, immigration, turn of the century) - Sounder (Armstrong) -- Glencoe Lit. Library guide - Sing Down the Moon (O'Dell) -- forced relocation of Najavo tribe onto reservations - Island of the Blue Dolphins (O'Dell) -- survive story -- Glencoe Lit. Library guide - Dragon's Gate (Yep) -- Chinese immigrants build the transcontinental railroad - Dragonwings (Yep) -- Chinese immigrants in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake -- Glencoe Lit. Library guide - The Terrible Wave (Dahlstedt) -- the Johnstown Flood - The Great Wheel (Lawson) -- construction of the first Ferris wheel - Little Britches (Moody) -- or -- The Great Brain (Fitzgerald) -- turn of century rural boy hi-jinx - Tuck Everlasting (Babbitt) -- turn of the century, fantastical element of "water of immortality" -- great discussion book -- Glencoe Lit. Library guide - My Name is America: The Journal of Joshua Loper: A Black Cowboy, The Chisholm Trail, 1871If looking for more traditional literature for a 7th grader: 1600s = poetry by Anne Bradstreet 1700s = poetry by Phyllis Wheatley 1800s = poetry by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; Emily Dickinson; Ralph Waldo Emerson; Walt Whitman 1820s = "Rip Van Winkle" (Irving) -- short story 1820s = "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (Irving) -- short story 1830s = The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Twain) -- novel -- Glencoe Lit. Library guide; 1870s = "Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" (Crane) -- short story 1880s = "The Lady or the Tiger" (Stockton) 1900s = "The Ransom of Red Chief" (Henry) -- short story 1900s = Call of the Wild, or, White Fang (London) -- Glencoe Lit. Library guide; Edited July 22, 2020 by Lori D. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momto6inIN Posted July 22, 2020 Share Posted July 22, 2020 I may be lazy, but I just hand my middle schoolers a list and tell them to read for X minutes per day from it and to see me to discuss when they're done. I google "Title discussion questions" and print them off to use as a starting point, but our discussions usually stray from those questions pretty quickly and widely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violet Crown Posted July 22, 2020 Share Posted July 22, 2020 Scribner School editions. These were published for US schools in the '60s and are mostly American literature. They have the best study guides. The tricky thing is finding them; they were never reprinted, and most booksellers don't tell you if their copy is the student edition or not. I've accumulated most of them over the years and if you're interested I'll post the list and tips for how to locate them. They are worth their weight in gold. Also, the Junior Great Books series have study guides. The older ones are harder to find the study guides for, as they were thin booklets that often got separated from the sets; but the more recent ones have study guides that are real books and so survived better. Not all American literature, though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChocolateCake Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 (edited) I'm not sure if all of the literature you listed was supposed to be American or not. Kidnapped takes place in Scotland. You may want to switch it out with Johnny Tremain which is a lot more engaging imho. Another great one is Chains which we listened to on audible. Some others my son has read are Ben Franklin (Landmark), The American Revolution (Landmark), Carry On Mr. Bowditch, Moccasin Trail and Shades of Gray. This was for 6th grade and I didn't use any lesson plans. I just had him narrate afterward. Some other good ones by Scott O'Dell include Sing Down the Moon , Streams to the River, River to the Sea, and Thunder Rolling in the Mountains. We listened to those on audio. A lot of the poetry listed above by Lori D. is in the Memoria Press Poetry and Short Stories book used in their 8th grade core (which has a guide with comprehension questions and vocab). https://www.memoriapress.com/curriculum/literature-and-poetry/seventh/poetry-short-stories-american-literature-set/ Edited July 23, 2020 by ChocolateCake Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs. Tharp Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 Memoria Press has a middle school level American Lit curriculum but it focuses on short stories and poetry. It still might be worth a look, as the guides are very structured. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbutton Posted July 25, 2020 Share Posted July 25, 2020 My middle schooler loves Mosdos Press. I also think the Memoria Press set mentioned might be a good fit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted July 25, 2020 Author Share Posted July 25, 2020 Thanks everyone! I like the look of that MP set. I think I might add some BW Arrows for some of the books and that MP set and be good to go! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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